Top 5 trends in Interactive Video for 2015

The way consumers experience video content is transforming. Gone are the days when we plop ourselves in front of the TV to watch endless hours of TV – except of course if you’re binge watching the latest installment of House of Cards.

Today we watch TV while browsing our phones. We stream our favorite shows via Netflix, and we use the things like Apple TV to access YouTube to watch the latest late night comedy skit by Jimmy Fallon. YouTube video watching is an active experience. Active meaning you consciously decide to sit their and watch something. Similar to watching Netflix and or Apple TV content. The viewer has consciously made a decision to consume content. We would argue engagement is higher when someone makes a decision to participate in viewing.

Interactive Video Will Be The Standard Of Advertising

As technology advances and creativity strengthens, regular commercials won’t be the norm as interactive videos now are becoming the new way to advertise the worlds products and services. These interactive videos are so successful because viewers are becoming engaged and involved with the product. Instead of skipping the advertisement on YouTube or scrolling past leaderboards on your favourite website, consumers will stop and be apart of the video advertisement because they made a conscious effort to do so. Hell Pizza in New Zealand created an interactive YouTube video adventure that gave the viewer the power on how the story unravelled, using this interactive technique as a promotion contest to win a years worth of free pizza. The campaign took off quite well with 110,000 views in the first 4 days, which is impressive for a raw series of 3 minute videos.

Creativity Will Be Stronger Than Ever

Since interactive videos are gaining traction, consumers have grown accustomed to creative, interesting and fresh videos. Here are some our favourite interactive videos; Honda’s: The Other Side Campaign, and Pepsi’s Click to Change the Plot Video. Both video’s are engaging, fun and definitely memorable, which are qualities of effective interactive videos, that make us further investigate the product, which in the end is what we are all looking for. From here only a truly creative, attention grabbing videos will be a successful interactive video.

3D & Augmented Reality To Allow At Home Shopping

Another impressive addition to interactive video trends are 3D manipulated images. This advanced technology lets consumers to stay at home and by using sensors that connect with your computer, the product is displayed as a 3D object. This allows all of the details that consumers need to see to make a the decision of purchase available to them, a company that applied this technology to was Olympus, they created a product demo video that displayed the 3D attributes of the PEN E-PL1 Camera.

Thinking Out Of the Box With YouTube Breakout Campaigns

Brands are now creating new creative branded advertising pages, that literally break out of the box, and takes over the entire YouTube interface. Viewers enjoying being apart of something new and different, and watching Sylvester Stallone literally blow YouTube to bits in a promotion for The Expendables is what will be remembered and likely shared to show friends on Facebook or through email. YouTube Breakout Campaigns are a great way to create buzz and interaction online.

Enhanced Analytics and Targeting

Since enhancements never seem to end, and interactive videos are becoming more and more popular, analytics are becoming more involved. Video advertisers can now gauge the success of their campaigns through analytics, enabling them to reach the target audiences by knowing where the viewer is from, their age, what else they watch online ect. From those details, advertisers can now target specific viewing demographic, therefore directly giving the information to the consumer that is most likely to purchase.